“To deny women access to birth control is to deny them health”

May 18, 2012

“As a nurse who works in public health, my guiding principle is the belief that prevention is the best medicine. It's an everyday part of my job to teach women about the importance of birth control, and to help them find the method that works best for them.

“This is why, despite being employed full-time by a large health care company, I was shocked when I recently discovered that my employer-subsidized health insurance did not cover my birth control of choice. Suddenly, I couldn't afford the luxury of the birth control I encourage my patients to use every day.

“That's when I got upset. It didn't make sense that an insurance company wouldn't cover a preventative health care tool with so much potential benefit, especially when the alternatives would be possibly dangerous to my overall health and well-being. Added to that was the sense of a loss of control over my reproductive health that comes along with suddenly not having a reliable method of family planning.

“I chose to work in this field because I believe that women deserve choices, and they deserve to have control over their own bodies. As the old saying goes, 'The personal is political.' My personal experience has reinforced what I already thought to be true: To deny women access to birth control is to deny them health.

“For this reason, I applaud the Obama administration and Secretary Sebelius for standing up for my health, and the health of millions of women across the country. No-copay birth control will save me hundreds of dollars a year; this is money that I will be able to use to pay off student loans, pay for other health care needs, and save for my future.”